A Detailed Explanation of Gynecomastia

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disease. It was once believed that there was an imbalance in the ratios of testosterone to estrogen or estradiol, but this is now know to be untrue.
There are three areas the can be attributed to the cause of gynecomastia: physiologic, pathologic and pharmacologic. "Enlargement of the male breast can be a normal physiologic phenomenon at certain stages of life or the result of several pathologic states."(Isselbacher, 2037)
In the case of physiologic gynecomastia the disease can occur in a newborn baby, at puberty or at any time in a man's life. In the newborn, transient enlargement of the breast is due to the action of maternal and/or placental estrogens. The enlargement usually disappears within a few weeks. Adolescent gynecomastia is common during puberty with the onset at the median age of 14. It is often asymmetrical and frequently tender. It regresses so that by the age of 20 only a small number of men have palpable vestiges of gynecomastia in one or both the breasts. ...

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animals."(Isselbacher, 2038) Some examples of drugs that may have cause gynecomastia include Cannabinoids (methane and marijuana), Psychotropics (pheno-thiazine, butyrophenone and reserpine), Antihypertensives (reserpine, alpha-methyldopa and spironolactone), Cardiac (digitalis), Gastrointestinal (cimetidine, metoclopramide and domperidone), Antituburculous (isoniazid), Cytoxic (cyclophospha-mide, mustine, vincristine and mitotane) and Hormonal (sex steroids, gonadotropins and antiandrogens). Use of these drugs, however, will rarely cause gynecomastia. In some instances, the feminization is due to effects of drugs on liver functions.

Signs and Symptoms

There are very ...

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